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a bunny holds Ellie

Riyaah

The girls are old enough now to be very
directly involved in choosing and/or making the gifts they give,
and for better or worse this year, they’re in it up to their
necks.

Cora has decided to make Sock Buddies for her teacher and a couple
select friends: you take a long cotton sock, fill it with rice and
dried lavender buds, then sew the end shut. Now you’ve got a
Sock Buddy to put in the freezer to cool off an owie, or in the
microwave to act as a heating pad. Cora loves measuring and
filling, but even more so she adores threading a needle and
laboriously sewing that sock shut tight, one stitch at a time.

Maddie has come up with some elaborate plan to make everyone in the
family t-shirts; I think it has something to do with each person
spelling out a word, or a sentence, or something. Not quite sure
where we’re going to wear it, but there you go.

As Cora watched Maddie get involved in the shirt-making business,
Cora decided SHE has to make shirts for Maddie and Daddy, so
she’s been busy with stamps and an inkpad all weekend.
Can’t wait to see Daddy’s face, and even more
important, to see him wear the shirt like I know he will.
‘Cause he loves his little girl.

Maddie has chosen to make candy for most of her friends, which
I’d applaud more loudly if I didn’t suspect it was all
an elaborate ruse to be able to eat the leftovers of said candy.

And Cora’s working on something for her Gamma –but I
can’t give that one away here.

I love that I haven’t said a word to the girls about
gift-giving: they’ve sat down and decided who they want to
get gifts for, and then come up on their own with creative, low- or
no-cost solutions to manufacture a great gift for a loved one.
Seeing them WANT to give gifts, and figure out their own ways to do
so without dipping into the Mommy Piggy Bank, has been a real treat
this year.

Now, ask me again how awesome I think it is when I’m wearing
my family t-shirt/slogan thingie . . .

Last week I was at a mom’s group
with several friends, and as we sat around chatting and catching up
one mom started telling a cute story about her six-year-old and a
recent lunch table experience.

It seems that this little girl – we’ll call her Susie
– had a friend who, at six years old, insisted that Santa is
not real. Susie became quite concerned, and several other kids at
the table started to panic. As the children argued and began
yelling at the poor “Santa basher”, the teacher came
over to see what was going on. By this time, at least one child was
near tears at the thought that Santa was not real, so the teacher
began to calm the child, assuring him that Santa is, indeed, real.
Unconvinced, the student continued to cry.

“So what happened?” one mom asked interestedly.

My friend chortled. “Well, the kids were so worried that the
teacher finally called several lunch ladies over who also assured
the children that this one child was wrong and Santa is, indeed,
real, and everyone finally calmed down. I just thought it was so
sweet how all the grown-ups rallied around those poor kids and
reassured them!” she finished, smiling, and the conversation
turned to other topics.

I sat there in silence, thinking about how that poor six-year old
who insisted Santa isn’t real must have felt to have been
told by countless adults that she was at best mistaken, and at
worst, a liar.

Well, thanks to a huge ice storm that hit
north Texas Thursday night, we spent three glorious days not
getting in our car, not working, not packing school lunches, and in
general having a fantastic time.

School was out Friday and Monday, thanks to the solid sheet of ice
coating all the roads. And before anyone starts sneering about the
pathetic southerners who can’t drive in snow, this is ice,
ok? And I drove in snow for twelve years in New York, but you
can’t drive on a solid sheet of ice with no snow plows or
salt trucks around. Ok?

At any rate, the girls were outside as much as I’d let them,
playing in the back yard, “ice skating” in our
cul-de-sac, and sledding down the school hill with friends. We kept
cider mulling on the stove for three solid days, and wallowed in
our home-ness, baking and wrapping gifts and decorating for
Christmas like it was December 24.

The whole sleeping in thing has been pretty great, too.

But the real world’s come back, and temperatures got above
freezing on Monday, thawing out the roads and giving lots of people
restless feet. I headed back to teaching Monday night and school is
on for this morning. Teachers are feeling the squeeze of having two
days taken away from them before winter break, and suddenly
we’re realizing it’s two weeks before Christmas and the
clock is ticking!

But for four glorious days, time stood still and we reveled in
every minute of it.

I’ve always been ambivalent about
the whole Santa thing: I enjoy the magic and childlike wonder, but
feel incredibly uncomfortable actively encouraging my children to
believe a lie. So I’ve lived in this uncomfortable zone at
Christmas time, deflecting questions and trying to avoid all-out
lying to my kids. And yes, we go see Santa for photos, and hang
stockings, and all that – but we don’t do Elf on a
Shelf or go crazy with the Santa idea.

This year just after school started, the mom of one of Cora’s
friends pulled me aside and told me that Cora had told her daughter
Laura that Santa Claus wasn’t real. In a very sweet and
non-threatening way, the mom asked me to please ask Cora to respect
other family’s traditions and not ruin the illusion of Santa
Claus. Mortified, I assured the mom that Cora and I had never even
had “the” Santa talk, and as far as I knew Cora still
believed, and perhaps it was a misunderstanding?

Then this weekend we were getting into the car at an outdoor
shopping area, replete with lights and Santa posters, and Cora
asked Brian point-blank if Santa was real. Brian completely
deflected the question and we breathed a sigh of relief.